Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

Hi there! I'm not exactly sure where to post this, if this is wrong I apologize. I need to find out how much of a disaster this is. So I was removing the wallpaper from the shower ceiling and much of the plaster came down with it. There is also a spot on the wall that is tiled where it is bowing out, I can press on it to make it go back in. As you will see there is a brown spot above that spot that must be water damage? What can I do to fix this the easiest and or best way? Should I call in a professional? Any advice is completely appreciated. I'm pretty much a beginner but I do have friends who can do things if doing it ourselves is an option that wouldn't be totally outrageous.

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Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

What is above the bath? Whatever it is, is the problem. Second floor bath with a lead pan overhead? Maybe a leaking roof?
Whatever it is, the ceiling and the walls will probably need to be removed. Water issues behind walls lead to wood rot and mold.
How old is the house? Have the bathrooms ever been remodeled?
This will probably require the entire shower area to be gutted and redone. the scope of the job would depend on quite a few details that aren't evident from the post. More pictures of the shower base, controls and other walls would help
Ron

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Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

Unfortunately it must be a leaky roof because that is all that's above it. It's a one story house. I don't have any other pictures at the moment because I'm not there, I will try and get some to post. Sounds like I might need a professional. I was planning on getting the roof redone next year, maybe I'll have to move that up.

Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

I'm wondering if I should give my inspector a call, he was just supposed to have been up in the attic a month ago, shouldn't he have noticed something and put it in the report if the roof was leaking? Also the city Truth in Housing report lists nothing regarding that about the attic space, everything says "meets standards" and when looking for a house I found many that said there was evidence of past/current dampness, etc... so I'm a little confused.

So when you say gut the bathroom do you mean the whole thing? Or can I just do the shower area? Someone at work told me to take down the plaster and lathe and put up drywall (some special stuff for bathrooms) and then put tile up, of course assuming we figure out where the water problem is coming from.

Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

I see a few questions I missed. Not sure if it makes any difference, but I'll answer them. The house was built in 1930 and I have no idea if it was ever remodeled. I know that some plumbing in the shower was updated before I moved in because the faucet was below the spill line and needed to be repaired before it was sold. Other than that, all I know about it is that the tub is cast iron. I know that's not very helpful, lol. It doesn't appear to have been updated much aside from being painted several times.

Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

From your picture the top rows of tile are already buckled, meaning that moisture has gotten behind them. First thing I would look for is if the vent pipe for the bathroom goes through the roof. If the rest of the roof is good, the flashing around the pipe may be your culprit. Second thing is that when you start taking off the loose tile you may never find the end until you have all of them removed. I'd just figure on taking them all down from the start. The way the plaster looks on the ceiling, it needs to come out anyway. If you replace with drywall, use a moisture rated product. People used to use "greenboard", but I'd go with one of the newer fibreglass faced products like densguard or something similar.

Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

No, there is no vent in the bathroom. I will see if I can get someone to go up in the attic to take pictures. We did some peeking around today and my friend says it looks like a newer vent pipe. There is an area on the wall that meets this wall that appears to have been repaired, that is the area directly under the vent pipe, so perhaps they had a problem in the past and tried to fix it but missed what was going on in the shower? I don't know. If I look on the city website address look up I can see there was a roofing permit a few years ago to add a rubber saddle... might that be related to the vent pipe?

At this point is it safe to say I should just knock out the plaster left on the ceiling and take out the tile and plaster at least on the one wall where it is bowed? Luckily I am not living in this house yet, at least that is one positive about this whole mess. Should I just take the tile/plaster off all 3 shower walls and put in (or have someone put in, depending) the Denshield? Thanks so much for all your help and input.

Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

Jackie, In my humble opinion YES. You will not be able to match that tile. Take it all down, checkout everything inside those walls, repair or replace anything you find that even hints at real old or bad, upgrade your insulation ect. Just way cheaper now even tho it might not seem so at this moment to you.

Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

"Should I just take the tile/plaster off all 3 shower walls and put in (or have someone put in, depending) the Denshield? "

An unremodeled bath from the 1930's will have a mud job on the walls. That's wire lath nailed to the studs. A scratch coat of concrete over the wire lath and english muffin shaped concrete behind the tiles holding them on. The problem with this setup is that it takes alot of effort to remove it. And most of the time the tile is continous coming out of the shower, turning the corner and extending down the walls on each side. Unless you have a space that separates the shower from the rest of the bath tile, you might end up gutting the entire bathroom.
But the good news is that this setup is tough to kill. You may be lucky in that you only have to remove the top few feet on one wall. But that determination would need to be made by a competant contractor who is on sight.
If you can salvage the tile off the wall you might be able to reuse them. You'll never match them. The tile size won't be found. A 4" tile is many sizes and thicknesses.
Ron

Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

I do have a partition thing that separates the shower from the rest of the wall...

Maybe the bathroom has been remodeled?? I don't know what it would have looked like 80 years ago. I'm not sure and don't have anyway to find out, the lady who lived here for 54 years is in assisted living with memory care and is pretty out of it. I do only see the wood lathe on the parts where I've knocked down a bit more of the plaster. My uncle has experience with sheetrock and my mom has done tile, so hopefully we will be able to work this out. My uncle is going to take a look at it today and then we'll decide if I need to call anyone in. I know you said I might be able to save part of the wall and tile but after I tore down the tile that was bowing we saw that it's plastic, and I'd rather have ceramic tile up anyway, so I think I prefer to do the whole thing over, maybe.

Sorry I sound so wishy washy. This is my first home and I'm starting to feel overwhelmed, though I know it will all be worth it when I get it all done exactly the way I want it.

Help! Bathroom shower ceiling/wall problem

If it's plastic, it all needs to go. It sounds like a bath I did for a customer years ago. Two elderly sisters sold the house to a young couple. The elderly sisters only took baths. When the new people moved in and started taking showers, the tiles were jumping off the walls. They were also plastic tiles. The sisters had them put on the plaster walls so it looked like a tiled bath. I never understood the shower head in the tub area. Plastic tiles will not keep water from getting behind the tiles and destroying the plaster walls.
The bullnose tiles outside the tub area have the profile of ceramic tiles. Are they plastic also?
Ron